The posting
Your work days are brighter here.
We’re obsessed with making hard work pay off, for our people, our customers, and the world around us. As a Fortune 500 company and a leading AI platform for managing people, money, and agents, we’re shaping the future of work so teams can reach their potential and focus on what matters most. The minute you join, you’ll feel it. Not just in the products we build, but in how we show up for each other. Our culture is rooted in integrity, empathy, and shared enthusiasm. We’re in this together, tackling big challenges with bold ideas and genuine care. We look for curious minds and courageous collaborators who bring sun-drenched optimism and drive. Whether you're building smarter solutions, supporting customers, or creating a space where everyone belongs, you’ll do meaningful work with Workmates who’ve got your back. In return, we’ll give you the trust to take risks, the tools to grow, the skills to develop and the support of a company invested in you for the long haul. So, if you want to inspire a brighter work day for everyone, including yourself, you’ve found a match in Workday, and we hope to be a match for you too.
About the Team
The Workday Data Cloud engineering team is at the epicenter of Workday’s "Agentic AI" strategy. We build and maintain Workday’s foundational data layer, breaking down data silos to enable over 65% of the Fortune 500 to unlock the power of their HR and Finance data. Our group sits at the intersection of deep systems engineering, advanced database design, and strategic cloud partnerships (including Snowflake, Databricks, and Salesforce). We are actively evolving our architecture from traditional data frameworks to modern lakehouses, unified catalogs, and semantic layers. This high-impact, entrepreneurial group is dedicated to building an open, zero-copy data ecosystem that fuels predictive modeling, real-time forecasting, and automated insights for the modern enterprise.
About the Role
Workday is seeking a visionary, transformative, and execution-focused Vice President of Engineering, Data Cloud to lead a world-class organization of 230–250 systems and software engineers. In this critical executive role, you will champion our most ambitious data initiative to date, driving the design, development, and execution of the core platforms that power the Data Cloud business unit.
As a key strategic partner to the Senior Vice President & General Manager, you will lead a high-priority engineering transformation. This includes modernizing our technology stack away from legacy platforms (Prism) toward a cutting-edge, open, and ultra-performant data ecosystem. You will be responsible for bringing an "outside-in" industry perspective, instilling a culture of high operational urgency and healthy debate, and scaling our engineering capabilities to fuel Workday’s next phase of AI-driven growth.
Responsibilities
- Transformational Leadership & Scale: Lead, scale, and inspire a distributed organization of 230–250+ systems and software engineers. Actively identify, attract, and recruit top-tier industry talent to expand the team's capabilities.
- Tech Stack Modernization: Oversee the strategic migration and modernization of our data infrastructure away from legacy platforms (Prism), accelerating the adoption of industry-leading data cloud practices.
- Culture of Urgency & Speed: Foster a high-velocity engineering culture characterized by operational discipline, accelerated execution, constructive debate, and healthy intellectual challenge, while preserving a highly empathetic, respectful, and inclusive environment.
- Systems & Product Development: Drive the end-to-end design, development, and debugging of robust software programs for core ecosystem enhancements and next-generation data products.
- Infrastructure & Platform Innovation: Influence overall systems architecture, distributed databases, low-latency query engines, and hardware compatibility requirements to support high-performance cloud infrastructure.
- Architecture & Technology Roadmap: Partner closely with the SVP & General Manager and product leadership to translate a high-level strategic vision into actionable engineering blueprints, prioritizing open-source solutions, zero-copy technology (Apache Iceberg), and AI-powered innovations.
- Ecosystem Partnership Integration: Collaborate with strategic external partners to design and implement deeply integrated, high-performance, and open data-sharing interfaces.
About You
- Large-Scale Engineering Leadership: 12+ years of progressive software engineering experience, with 5+ years of dedicated executive leadership experience managing large, multi-tiered engineering organizations (ideally 150+ people) in fast-paced environments.
- Change Management & Execution: Proven track record of leading successful organizational transformations, driving execution speed, and instilling a sense of urgency without sacrificing cultural health.
- Modern Data Domain Expertise: Deep technical understanding of the evolution of data technology (e.g., the transition from data warehouses to lakehouses, unified catalogs, and semantic/context layers). Strong familiarity with cloud-native architectures, distributed infrastructure, and query optimization is required.
- "Outside-In" Technical Perspective: A strong awareness of external industry trends and a willingness to challenge internal legacy practices by embracing modern external solutions, open-source frameworks, or strategic integrations.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Navigation: Exceptional ability to navigate complex, matrixed environments, aligning engineering roadmaps closely with product management, corporate objectives, and executive leadership.
- Pragmatism & Agility: Strong analytical rigor with the courage to pivot strategies when necessary, effectively balancing architectural ideals with business realities and execution speed.
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field; an advanced technical degree (Master's or Ph.D.) is highly preferred.
Workday Pay Transparency Statement
The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. Workday pay ranges vary based on work location. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Recruiters can share more detail during the hiring process. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, job duties, and business need, among other things. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please click here.
Primary Location: USA.CA.Pleasanton
Primary Location Base Pay Range: $308,000 USD - $462,000 USD
Additional US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $308,000 USD - $462,000 USD
Our Approach to Flexible Work
With Flex Work, we’re combining the best of both worlds: in-person time and remote. Our approach enables our teams to deepen connections, maintain a strong community, and do their best work. We know that flexibility can take shape in many ways, so rather than a number of required days in-office each week, we simply spend at least half (50%) of our time each quarter in the office or in the field with our customers, prospects, and partners (depending on role). This means you'll have the freedom to create a flexible schedule that caters to your business, team, and personal needs, while being intentional to make the most of time spent together. Those in our remote "home office" roles also have the opportunity to come together in our offices for important moments that matter.
Pursuant to applicable Fair Chance law, Workday will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Workday is an Equal Opportunity Employer including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.
Workday is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals during our application process, in order to perform one or more essential functions of their job, as well as regarding the use of AI tools for employment decision-making to any degree. Please see below for more details including how to request an accommodation as a qualified veteran, due to a disability or for religious reasons, or as otherwise provided under applicable law.
Workday prohibits taking adverse action against any candidate or employee for reporting a possible violation of this policy, requesting one or more work accommodations, exercising a privacy right, or cooperating in an investigation in accordance with applicable law. Any employee who retaliates against a candidate or employee for doing so may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, to the fullest extent allowable under applicable law.
If you require a reasonable accommodation, you may email [email protected], as far in advance as possible.
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